1. Field
This application relates to methods and devices for controlling a memory.
2. Description of Related Art
A through-silicon via (TSV) technique has been developed in which a fine hole is bored in a vertically stacked semiconductor chip to connect a silicon upper chip to a silicon lower chip. For example, a 3D (three-dimensional) laminated memory using the TSV technique may be a high bandwidth memory (HBM), a hybrid memory cube (HBC), or a wide input/output (I/O) memory. The 3D laminated memory may provide a wide bandwidth by being integrated into a package with a processor. An internal memory providing a wide bandwidth in a package may be used as a cache of an external memory outside the package due to a relatively small storage space.
However, a lot of unnecessary requests may be transmitted to the internal and external memories of the package when data is written in or read from the memories. Furthermore, the internal and external memories of the package need to be efficiently utilized because bandwidths of the internal and external memories may be different from each other.